I've had 2 Sony MD Diskman recorders for many, many years and can vouch for the quality. I use a Sony stereo condenser mic - original cost about £40 - which gives excellent quality. I've also had dozens of discs for many years and encountered no loss of quality or discs being unplayable. It's been a very under-rated medium and, in spite of several predictions of its imminent demise, is still used in domestic and studio situations.

However, when the time eventually comes to upgrade, the comments about the future unsupportability of the MD medium are probably true - and it will probably be something like the Zoom.

There was a re-run of an "Inspector Morse" episode on TV recently, in which Lewis was exclaiming about a great computer he'd like to have - it two old 5" floppy drives! Those were the days...